Images that promote cycling in regional Victoria are often beautiful and enticing: smiling, happy people ride along scenic bike paths that meander through wide, open farmlands, dense bushland and along the coast.

But for people who live and ride in regional communities, the picture is very different.

A recent Victorian study we undertook for the Baw Baw Shire Council investigated the safety concerns of cyclists and drivers when travelling on the roads in the Baw Baw Shire area.

The study was an online survey of 283 residents in the Baw Baw Shire area, 100km east of Melbourne, the majority of whom had a driver’s licence (98.5%). Around half (47%) of respondents classified themselves as cyclists, though not all rode frequently.

I remember completing that survey and thinking at the time just how poorly worded most of the questions were. Some of the questions were ambiguous and others came across as biased against cycling. Seemed like a total waste of grant money to me.

As a regular Baw Baw cyclist, it is disappointing to see so much focus by this council on providing cycling infrastructure around the largest town, Warragul. A lot of cyclists do not live or ride around Warragul. The roads outside of Warragul are in a terrible state. One road section near Yarragon was highlighted to the council prior to the Great Victorian Bike Ride brought some 4,000 cyclists over it but was still not repaired.

Unfortunately, many councils seem to think that putting up warning signs about road conditions absolves them from the need to repair them and maintain infrastructure.